River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-03-03
welding Copper.

llAlNbuI2 Atlililtitlhi-NhdTtAAtt Aitti
years of patient experimenting, james
| Burns. Scotch blacksmith at the
Allegheny Valley Railroad shops in
! Verona, has made wonderful
discovery. He has found the process
in the unsuccessful search of which
millions of dollars have been spent
By scientists during the last 100 wears.
This is the welding of copper. Until
now copper never could be welded.
Every known art. method, and science
was tried on it, but all failed. Even
electricity was unable TO do IT, This
insWmountable obstacle made copper
very expensive metal 10 handle. and yet
it j. the only metal that will do for a
large part of machinery.
In making copper steam pipes for
engines and locomotives they had 10 be
worked up out of the solid raw mass of
copper by sort of boring process
which was tedious and costly. TO
make q ring for fitting over a joint in
pipes or cylinders il had to be- cut round
out of a square piece of solid plate
copper. The waste could often not be
melted over into another plate, because
by the present smelling methods the
slightest impurity mixing in it will
spoil the whole mass To repair broken
or defective copper pipes, chambers, or
vessels brass had TO be used. by which
in Il whole days labor the piece could
be brazed. But should intense heat
strike the brazed part afterwards the
brass would melt and thus the piece be
ruined.
With little vial of chemicals (the
combination and names of which are
Mr. Burns secreD. hot fire, an anvil.
and hammer the Verona blacksmith
shows how in ten minutes he can do all
that over comes the above difficulties.
He has already welded nearly a dozen
different articles in copper with as
much ease as baser metals can be
handled and submitted them to the
examination of Hussey, Howe & Co.,
this city. Park. Scott x Co. would not
believe he could do it, and TO satisfy
them he gave public test at their mill.
at which Mr. Scott was present. and
which was accomplished successfully
with the ordinary tools and rolls of an
iron-mill. While showing the result of
his experiments to the reporter Mr..
Burns offered TO go to the office stove
and weld bit of copper, using a tack
hammer. Whenever he can get fire
and hammer he can weld copper. BY
the old process of brazing fourteen or
fifteen heats in furnace are required
to fin copper, but by his welding process
only one heat is necessary. The weld
being the pounding of the pure copper
together, makes it so strong that it will
never give ont like brazed parts.
BY this new discovery a straight
piece of copper can be curved into
circle and then welded together in a
ring for fitting over joints, thus saving
the waste of cutting il from a square
plate. Pipes may be made in the same
way. being welded instead of worked
ont Of the solid. Mr Burns has even
made a boiler for a small engine BY
his welding-somethirg unheard of. In
the process of welding the copper is
purified. another remarkable feature of
the discovery. No impurity mixing in
the smelter interferes and old scraps
nave DccH ihtIttu anu Ntiutu iutO stli
sorts of pipes, joints, and fittings by
Mr.. Burns Old copper was recently
selling 1T twelve cents n pound, while
the market price of copper on heat
was thirty-eight cents.
\ paper recently read by Prof. f.
Thompson before the Society of Arts at
Boston mentioned that the new art of
electric welding applied to copper. Mr.
Burns says that j, not welding because
it's not hammered. 1t is simply burning
two ends together, and were IA hammer
applied to it all would be ruined. He
thcfore says it is impracticable. Mr..
Burns has spent considerable money ia
the eight or nine years he has been
preparing his secret chemical mixture.